The Darkest of Nights
by maryastors
Summary: When George Minafer decides to have his Aunt Fanny confined to a mental institution, it sets off a chain of events no one could have predicted. An alternate ending to The Magnificent Ambersons. Content warning for suicidal thoughts.
1. Chapter 1

"No! No, this is a mistake!" She isn't being gripped too forcefully, but the hand on Fanny Minafer's arm is just tight enough to stop her from breaking free. She can feel her heart beating rapidly, accompanied by a sinking feeling in her stomach as her nephew signs his name to the bottom of a paper.

"George! George, please! Please don't let them take me! I...I...I can still take care of you, I promise! I'll find us something, we-we'll have a place to go!" Each word is pierced with a sob, and perhaps now she looks every inch of what she's being labeled. Crazy. Hysterical. Not fit to be out in public.

"You're going to be alright, Aunt Fanny. They're going to help you. You're not well, this is for the best. But George's words are delivered without any warmth or assurance. They both know where she's headed, and she at least has heard the terrible stories to come out of those institutions.

I don't belong there, tell me I don't belong there! But Fanny can't find the strength to utter those words, and instead she begins to hyperventilate, finding it hard to catch her breath as a deep sense of fear overtakes her. She can no longer hear herself, isn't certain whether she's crying or silent. Giving George a final pleading look, one that doesn't seem to faze him, she faints dead away, her convulsing body going limp in the arms of the doctor.

The silence seems even harder to bear than her tears, and George makes a show of clearing his throat as his aunt is carried out of the mostly empty house. Roger Bronson's hand on his shoulder nearly makes him jump out of his skin, and he turns to face the man.

"It really is the best place for her, George. I guess she'd been hysterical for a long time, but she just went over the edge when you lost this place. You heard her scream, a woman like that needs to be stopped from being a hazard to herself, not to mention a danger to others."

A small voice in the back of George's head starts to sound unsure, for after all, it is hard to imagine Aunt Fanny being a real danger to anyone. But he's being told what he wants to hear, and she's no longer his responsibility.

"Yes," George agrees, gaining more confidence as he nods. "It is the right thing."


	2. Chapter 2

p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"Fanny awakens to the sight of bright lights, their piercing gleam starting to cause an ache at the front of her head. Giving a short grimace of pain, she reaches up to rub at her temple, but her hand doesn't move. A second try brings the realization that it has been chained in place, along with her other wrist. Tears sting her already raw eyes, threatening to spill over as she swallows hard, trying to keep silent. At least silence might guarantee that the tight grip on her shoulder won't reappear. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"As foggy as Fanny feels, the events of the afternoon are quite clear, and she fights hard to gulp down another sob as she recalls what had been done. Perhaps her relationship with George had been rocky, and it was easy to remember that he was prone to rash decisions, but she hadn't thought him capable of this level of betrayal. Sadness tore at her heart as much as fear. No one in her family had ever cared, they had always cast her aside. Even her parents had seen her as ridiculous old Fanny, always to be mocked, never helped. George was probably off celebrating his freedom from her, if he gave her a thought at all. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"To be dead, what a relief that might be. How many times had those thoughts crept through to her mind? Since she was fifteen, fourteen, perhaps younger. In those days she had imagined that it might make them all realize what they had missed. She had pictured them all weeping over her casket, but one day she had stayed in her room with the door locked, and not even the maid had come to see if she was alright. Nothing would make them care./span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"It was then that her feelings turned to what she experienced now. The need to be free of her loneliness and torment, to be at peace, to stop the bitter disappointments that always seemed to plague her life. Eugene sprang to mind then, her greatest disappointment of all. The love that she had hoped and prayed for denied her once again, and despite it all it a piece of her heart broke to know he would never find her. Who would? No one knew where she was, nor what fate had befallen her. George wouldn't confess, he might say that she had gone to live with family somewhere else, no scandal needed to follow him into his new career. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"The sheer hopelessness of her situation sets upon Fanny as though someone had hit her, and she finally cries out, low and wounded, so different from the screams that have branded her hysterical. It doesn't take more than a moment for a key to fumble in the lock on her door, and she whimpers as a nurse and doctor both come in. Fanny recognizes the doctor, the same man who had fetched her from the house. He looks at her in disapproval, as though she were a child who had done something wrong. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;""I see your outburst is continuing, Miss Minafer. You caused quite a scene earlier, and I'm afraid we can't have that here. We'll have to find something to quiet you down." Fanny doesn't protest this time, she's already learned that it's useless to beg. But her tears cannot be stopped, and they only increase, her body gasping for air as the nurse exits the room and returns with a syringe. /span/p  
p class="p2" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p class="p1" style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 17px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: #454545; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"span class="s1" style="font-family: '.SFUIText'; font-size: 17pt;"She looks away, focusing on the floor as the sharp prick of a needle makes contact with her arm. Her eyes close against their will, and the bright lights and the doctor disappear, along with every thought in her head./span/p 


End file.
